The material provided below is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to replace the diagnosis or treatment by a qualified healthcare professional. You should always seek medical advice before consuming any new medicines or supplements.
It’s common knowledge that probiotics are both good for your gut and help to keep you feeling your best.1* While this is a true statement, it’s also a very broad one. Read on if you’re interested in digging a bit deeper to fully understand probiotic benefits in the digestive system and how you can start incorporating probiotics into your life.
What Makes Probiotics Beneficial?
Probiotics are good bacteria able to coexist with the billions of bacteria already living in your digestive system.1 Since many different strains of probiotics exist, it’s important to note that each strain of probiotics may offer different benefits. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG helps restore the natural balance of good bacteria in your digestive tract.*
First isolated and discovered in 1985,2 Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG has been the subject of more than 1,000 clinical studies. Two things that set Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG apart from the many other strains of probiotics are its hair-like appendages that help it adhere to our gut walls3 and its impressive tolerance to the harsh acids found in the stomach and digestive system.2*
Probiotic Benefits
Supporting your gut bacteria is the first benefit of taking probiotics. Because your gut is home to 70 percent of the immune system!*
As part of the process of supporting the balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut, probiotics hold a variety of immune and digestive health benefits.* A few of these benefits include support of:
- Overall digestive system health*
- Helping to reduce occasional digestive upset*
- Helping to reduce occasional diarrhea*
- Helping to reduce gas and bloating*
- Supporting the immune system*
- Creating a strong barrier against non-beneficial bacteria4*
Where to Find Probiotics
When it comes to getting your daily serving of probiotics, you may think food such as sauerkraut or pickled cucumbers are viable options, but that may not always be the case. Typically foods become enriched with probiotics through a process called fermentation. However, a few drawbacks to trying to get your probiotics via fermented food are that you don’t know exactly what probiotic strain you’re eating or the amount of probiotic contained within each serving. To add to that confusion, any food that claims to have probiotics but has been pasteurized most likely does not contain any live probiotics at all, this is because the pasteurization process kills all living bacteria.5 Probiotic supplements, on the other hand, solve all of these problems.
High quality probiotic supplements are the best way to know exactly what amount and strain of probiotic you are getting every day. Culturelle® Digestive Daily Probiotic Chewables, for instance, contains 10 billion active cultures of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG in an easy once-a-day orange-flavored chewable.
What are you waiting for? Start incorporating the many benefits of probiotics today and experience the difference they can make to your overall immune health and digestive wellness!*
1 Digestive Health. https://dev-culturelle-com.pantheonsite.io/why-probiotics/digestive-health
2 Frequently Asked Questions About Culturelle Probiotic Supplements. https://dev-culturelle-com.pantheonsite.io/culturelle-advantage/culturelle-probiotic-faqs
3 The Role of Cell Surface Architecture of Lactobacilli in Host-Microbe Interactions in the Gastrointestinal Tract. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/mi/2013/237921/
4 What Does Gut Flora Do for My Body? http://www.downthelane.com/articles/what-does-gut-flora-do-for-my-body.html
5 Does Heating Yogurt Kill Good Bacteria? http://www.livestrong.com/article/546671-does-heating-yogurt-kill-good-bacteria/
